The Johns Hopkins University performed $1.375 billion
in science, medical and engineering research in fiscal year
2004, making it — by nearly 44 percent — the
leading U.S. academic institution in total R&D spending for
the 26th year in a row, according to a new National Science
Foundation ranking.

The university also ranked first on the NSF's separate
list of federally funded research and development, spending
$1.229 billion in FY2004 on research supported by such
agencies as the National Institutes of Health, NASA, the
National Science Foundation and the Department of
Defense.

Johns Hopkins in FY2002 became the first university to
cross the $1 billion threshold on either list, recording
$1.14 billion in total research and $1.023 billion in
federally sponsored research that year. To date, no other
institution has reached the $1 billion mark.

The University of California, Los Angeles was second
in total R&D spending in FY2004 at $773 million. The
University of Washington ranked second in federally
financed R&D at $625.2 million.

Research funding at Johns Hopkins supports projects
that delve into everything from the genetic underpinning of
cancer and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to investigation
of the dark matter that comprises 90 percent of matter in
the universe. The university's scientists and engineers are
at work in fields as diverse as robotics,
nanobiotechnology, cell engineering and global health.

Research conducted at the Bloomberg School of Public
Health, School of Medicine, Krieger School of Arts and
Sciences, Whiting School of Engineering and Applied Physics
Laboratory is all supported by funding from federal and
other sources.

"Discoveries and innovations that provide lasting
benefit to humanity are the ultimate goals of the
scientific, medical and engineering research done at Johns
Hopkins," said President William R. Brody. "But we are also
gratified that our scientists' success in winning support
for their research has a major economic benefit at home
here in Maryland, where the university is one of the
state's largest private employers."

Johns Hopkins had led the NSF's research expenditure
rankings each year since 1979, when the agency's
methodology was revised to include spending by APL in the
university's totals. Behind UCLA on the FY2004 total
research expenditure list is the University of Michigan at
$769 million, followed by the University of Wisconsin,
Madison with $763 million. The University of California,
San Francisco completed the top five at $728 million.

The total funding ranking includes not only research
support from federal agencies but also support from
foundations, corporations and other sources.